You are correct, sacrifices should be made to achieve something meaningful. Could I trade any sort of work for a class? (ie: administrative, janitorial, chef)
Instead, research everything about 37Signals and Starter League (example: http://charliehoehn.com/2009/01/08/how-to-hack-someones-mind...), come up 3 ideas that benefit them, and pitch them as someone who will get it done and they won't have to manage. When contacting busy people, you'll get far better returns with this approach.
I'd go into more detail, but Charlie already wrote the roadmap for doing this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5qUR3tpEdA
vpena.sqsp.com/perfectforstarterleague/